


Oceanside

by ZScalantian



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: (For Namine's (Kingdom Hearts) time in Castle Oblivion), Destiny Islands (Kingdom Hearts), Implied/Background Naminé/Xion, Implied/Referenced Past Child Abuse, Kingdom Hearts III Spoilers, Mostly Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Multi, Slice of Life, Tidus and Wakka (FFX) make cameos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:35:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22040422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZScalantian/pseuds/ZScalantian
Summary: Living on the islands is wonderful.  Being concerned that your best friend might vanish any day is not.
Relationships: Kairi & Naminé (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Sora & Sora's Mother (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: Kingdom Hearts Holiday Gift Exchange





	Oceanside

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eskandarrohani (erohani)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/erohani/gifts).



> Set during the ending cutscene of KH3. My headcanon is that, after Sora went off to save Kairi's heart one more time, running the risk of weakening his own to the point of disappearance, there was a grace period of several months before the beach party whence he evaporates.

“Come out with me?” Kairi stands in the doorway. Her smile feels only a little unsure. 

Naminé’s desk is covered with papers. The sketchbook page in front of her is covered in rectangles of black and dark grey, with flashes of blue, yellow, pink, red. Kairi squints at it. It looks a little like The World That Never Was, but that’s not it. Naminé hasn’t looked up from it.

“Naminé?”

“Oh!” Her head jerks up and she blinks. “Sorry. What did you need?”

“Do you want to go out with me? I’m heading over to Sora’s.”

She shakes her head. “No, but thanks. I’m in the middle of something.” The black and grey crayons are worn to nubs, and she pulls a drawer open, looking for new ones. 

Kairi’s smile dips. “You sure? It seems like you’re always ‘in the middle of something.’” 

There’s the briefest flash of irritation across Naminé’s face, but it’s gone as swiftly as it came. “I’m just -” She waves a hand at the stacks of sketches. The motion stirs the air, wafting up a scent of warm wax. “If there’s anything I can do to help -”

Her laugh is sudden, and a little too sharp, until she covers her mouth to stifle it. There’s a sharp echo of pain in her chest. “I know. I feel _exactly_ the same.” She walks over to Naminé and puts a callused hand on her bare shoulder. “We have to believe it’ll be okay.” That’s how she’d done it last time, planting herself as an anchor and refusing to doubt. She frowns, scrunching up her freckled nose, gathering her thoughts. “It’s good to prepare, just in case, but you can’t stop living _your_ life, Naminé, trying to fix it. He doesn’t want that.”

Naminé looks down at her latest drawing and brushes crayon dust off it before folding her hands together. “What if he vanishes before we figure anything out?”

Kairi’s hand tightens sharply on her shoulder. “We _will_ figure it out.” There’s a mark when she lets go, pale white at first, and then faintly pink under the light tan. Naminé doesn’t say anything, but Kairi flushes and apologizes. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, turning away. She addresses the open window, with its zig-zag pattern curtains and view of the terracotta house roofs sloping down to the blue bay. “Take a break. You might come up with new ideas. This is my fault in the first place, so if _I_ think you’re working too hard…”

Naminé protests at once. “It was _not_ your fault!”

There are hard edges in Kairi’s answering smile. “Everyone keeps saying that. Look, come out with me. We all miss seeing you.”

It’s a half-hour walk from the mayor’s house in the center of town to Sora’s house near the fisheries. That doesn’t seem long, but on the islands, it’s a notable distance. Even now, months after she came to live here, and despite having seen its scenery so often in memories and dreamily through Kairi’s eyes while they were merged, the island startles her with its beauty. 

There’s not a single paved road, and only three buildings over three-stories tall. Children run laughing everywhere, their bare feet raising puffs of white sand, or red-brown dust from the volcanic soil. The mountains rise behind them, their brown slopes softened daily by the increasing plant growth. Birds sing from every tree; a chorus of insect life shrills and chirps and hums all day and night. Palm trees rattle quietly in the warm, soft breezes, and the sound of ocean waves soaks into her mind until she can’t imagine how she ever lived without their constant lullaby.

The only thing Naminé doesn’t love is the flowers everywhere. They come in every possible hue, shape, and size. They grow in the sun and in the shade, and their perfume is inescapable. A rose garden takes up half an entire block on the street she and Kairi first took to school. Naminé held her breath passing it until Kairi noticed and changed their route.

All this means she is slightly dismayed, when they get to Sora’s house, to be greeted in the garden by Sora and his mom, both with gardening gloves on, standing next to a knee-high stack of burlap fertilizer bags. Emi is like her son - short, skinny, brown-haired, and cheerful. There are smudges of dirt along her upper arms and her chin, and she waves a trowel at them when she sees them. “Ah! Kairi, Naminé! Come here! I need more young backs.”

Kairi hurries forward. “How can I help?”

“You don’t mind?” asks Sora, but he’s already picking up one of the sacks and putting it in her waiting arms. He leans in over it and pecks a quick kiss on her cheek. Kairi does not, quite, drop the sack. Her smile is brilliant.

“Aaaah!” Emi mock-screams, covering her eyes with one hand. She brandishes the trowel with the other. “Don’t be doing that in front of your mother! I still remember you as little kids, you’re making me feel old.”

“Sorry,” says Sora, smiling dopily. He and Kairi glance at each other and giggle. Naminé hangs back, watching, unable to put a name to the hollowness in her chest. It isn’t jealousy, and it isn’t quite sadness. 

It was easier, before, when she thought she had no heart. Acknowledging and living with her feelings is a skill she’s still learning. 

A few emotions, though, are old and familiar enough that she knows how to handle them. She feels the prickle of guilt when Emi smiles at her - _Sorry about that year when I made you forget your son’s existence_ \- but she has already apologized, and been forgiven. The guilt will fade with time, as better memories are layered over top of it.

Her dislike of flowers is less easily buried. She lets Sora and Kairi get on their knees by the blooming bushes, scraping away mulch, digging small holes, and dropping in measured doses of powdery white lime and crumbly brown fish meal. She carries the bags of fertilizer where they are needed, and runs to turn the hose on and off for Emi. The yard is small, but the plantings are densely packed, and they’ve been at the work for a good two hours before Emi calls a break.

The teenagers stagger onto the lanai and collapse onto rattan chairs. “I’m exhausted~” Sora groans, stretching dramatically.

“A better workout than Yen Sid ever came up with,” agrees Kairi, fanning her sweating face with her hand.

Naminé is too worn out to chime in. Sora and Kairi are at least athletic, their bodies all lean muscle. It’s terribly unfair, considering that she originally came from them, that she has exactly the level of fitness to be expected in someone who typically spends her day seated and indoors. 

Emi, who mostly used the hose to water the nutrients in and is less tired, brings them lemonade, breadfruit fries, and a bowl of pickled mango slices. She laughs at their prone positions. “Aren’t you kids heroes of some sort? Look at you, laid low by a little gardening!” 

They all smile. Sora stretches again, and sits up. “If only Xehanort had known it was this easy,” he jokes. “But I can’t imagine what kind of plants he’d’ve wanted to grow.”

“Probably all the poisonous ones,” murmurs Kairi, reaching a languorous hand for a glass. Ice clinks, and beads of condensation slide down its sides. It looks so refreshing, Naminé finds the energy to sit up and get one herself. 

Emi stands behind Sora. She sets a hand in his hair and ruffles the spikes gently. “Someday, I want to hear the full story.” 

He smiles up - Naminé is struck by how grown-up he looks these days, how measured and peaceful. “I promise, Mom.” Emi gazes back. Her smile’s warm, but the wrinkles around her eyes seem heavy, suddenly, and the questioning look doesn’t leave her.

Nanami takes an unhappy sip of lemonade, holding it tart and cold in her mouth. They haven’t told Sora’s parents about what might happen. “Why worry them?” said Sora, and really, it’s his choice to make. Nanami wonders what she’ll do when - no, _if_ \- Sora vanishes. If she sees Emi and Taro are really suffering. They have no powers, and no inclination to leave the islands, unlike their wandering, world-hopping son. Maybe it would be easier on them, if she simply made them _forget_ again. Until he’s brought back. 

Would they forgive her a second time?

The lemonade suddenly makes her eyes tear, and she swallows hurriedly and turns away to wipe at them. She catches Kairi’s eye. The redhead scrunches her face in unhappy sympathy, then turns back to the table, brightly changing subjects. “You going to plant anything special this year?”

“Ooh, yes, actually. Lana gave me a cassava cutting, and I’m going to see if I can get it to root. I don’t have much luck with trees, usually.”

The topic turns to Emi’s garden, one of the passions of her life. Sora smiles to see his mom’s mood lifted, and Kairi gets a small, pleased smile of her own. Naminé bears it for as long as she can, but when Emi begins discussing orchids, she has to leave. She says she has to use the washroom, but she actually wanders out back of the house, down to the clean, white, sandy beach and the gently rolling waves. 

She sits, carefully tucking her skirt under her, and digs her hand into the warm sand, letting the grains sift through her fingers. There are gulls wheeling overhead, and flights of pelicans. Tiny crabs, the same color at the sand, pass to and fro around her. The waves leave lacy patterns of foam behind them, hissing as the bubbles pop, and then the next waves erase them. She fills her eyes and her ears and her lungs and does not think of anything.

After she’s been there a while, she hears her name, and turns to see Kairi and Sora running down the trail to her.

“Here you are,” says Kairi, tucking her hand into Naminé’s elbow. There is a faint crease of concern between her eyebrows. Naminé looks at the position of the sun and realizes that, though she only intended to step away for a few minutes, she’s been on the beach for well over an hour. 

“Sorry. The ocean was so pretty, I lost track of time.”

Sora cocks his head. “It is really pretty, but…” He peers closely at her face. “Are you okay, Naminé?”

It startles her. “Of course I am!”

He straightens. “Okay then. I’m glad.” 

Kairi’s hand jumps against her arm, and she points up. “Look!” In the bright blue sky, there’s a sudden sparkle that becomes a falling star. It becomes larger and more vivid, and falls away from view behind the green hump of the play island.

“Riku!” Sora cheers, and runs down the beach, kicking up a spray of sand behind him. 

Kairi turns to Naminé, violet eyes shining. “Help me with the boat?”

Xion steps happily out of the gummi ship onto the soft sand, stretching out her arms and inhaling salt air deeply. She doesn’t _dislike_ traveling in the little craft, which is roomier inside than it appears, it’s just that… corridors of darkness had been so convenient. Travel in the ship is time-consuming: charting the course, steering around obstacles, and the occasional frenetic, whirling fight with roving Heartless. 

Mostly, she’s just glad to see the islands. She’s loved this place since her first mission here, before she knew anything about who she was and where she came from. No matter how happy she is in Twilight Town, a small part of her will always think this feels like home. 

Riku comes around the back of the ship, rubbing his neck and looking thoughtful. “I think the left fin’s coming loose or something. I’m gonna have to get Sora to look at it, he actually knows what he’s doing in the gummi garage.”

Xion looks at the gummi ship - red and orange and yellow, with a long nose, stubby wings, a transparent bubble cockpit, and cannons slung underneath. She cocks her head. “Isn’t this just the same ship Donald and Goofy gave him when they started out?” That’s what she’d understood, anyway, having overheard Chip and Dale ribbing Sora over his lack of creativity.

Riku shakes his head. “I guess not, actually. He’ll talk your ear off about everything he’s done to it, if you let him.”

She laughs. “That’s like him!” 

“Yeah,” he smiles fondly, “it is.” 

There’s a shout from the ocean behind them. “Hey, Riku, what’s happening?”

There are two bright heads bobbing out of the water, two boys swimming up to the beach. _Tidus and Wakka._ She’s only met them once before, but the names rise like bubbles out of Sora’s memories. 

“Not much,” says Riku as they hit the shallows and wade toward them. “I brought back a guest.”

“Xion, right?” Tidus says. Xion smiles. Having people remember her name seems like such a small thing, but it fills her up with warmth inside. 

“What were you doing out there?” she asks.

“Lung training,” answers Wakka, thumping his chest. “For blitzball, ya?”

This takes a moment longer to come to her - an underwater ball game. Sora didn’t play it much, more interested in sword fights and races. “Seems tough.”

“Nah,” says Tidus. “It’s easy, once you get the hang of it.” His eyes light up. “You wanna learn how to play?”

She hesitates. The freedom to do whatever she wants is still fresh. Her first impulse when someone wants her to do something is to agree and try her best at it, but really, she’s not very interested. She shakes her head. “Sorry.”

His shoulders slump, but he shakes it off. “Gotcha.” 

“Shot down, huh?” Wakka laughs. 

Tidus glares at him. Xion feels the tips of her ears turn suddenly pink. Had he been flirting with her? Did she miss a social cue there? She’s interacted with so few people, she misses really basic stuff sometimes. Because she’s a girl, and delicate-looking, people treat her differently than they do Sora. She can’t use his memories as a guide.

Riku slides her a sideways smile, and pats her shoulder in gentle reassurance. “You guys have your boats?”

Both boys smirk. “No way, man,” says Wakka, and Tidus chimes in, “We swam over.” Xion looks, startled, across the expanse of gleaming blue ocean to the main island - it’s no short swim. Then she squints, and shades her eyes. Against the glittering water, she can see two of the small canoes that everyone on the islands use to get around. In one, there’s a head of brown hair, and in the other, a red and a blonde.

“It’s Naminé!” she says, delighted.

Riku squints too. “And Sora and Kairi. They must’ve seen us come in.” He turns to her. “You want to wait here? Or meet them halfway?”

“Let’s go,” she says, impatient to see her friends.

“Hey, wait a minute,” says Wakka, putting out his hand. “We gonna have a cookout at my place tonight.” He looks at Riku. “My parents might’ve already asked yours, but you wanna come?”

“I do, but… Xion? You’ve never been to one, right?”

She hasn’t, but Sora has, and the memories make her mouth water. “I want to go!”

He chuckles. “Alright then. Lemme clear it with Sora and Kairi, but we’ll probably see you guys later.”

They meet on the water. The hollow hulls of the boats _thunk_ together. Sora flings himself half out of his canoe and throws his arms around Riku, who has to drop his oars and grab onto the gunwale with one hand for balance. He wraps his other arm around Sora’s waist. He sighs out a breath that ruffles Sora’s hair. It’s a huge weight off his shoulders, every time he comes home and Sora’s still here.

Riku would rather not go at all. He wants to spend as much time with Sora and Kairi as he can, while he can, but they have the gummi ship on loan specifically so they can follow leads to save Sora, even when those leads are offworld. He and Kairi take turns with it. 

He meets her eyes over Sora’s head as her boat pulls alongside. Her smile makes his heart race, bright and bittersweet. Sora pulls away - Riku shifts his balance again, keeping the canoe even-keeled. 

“We missed you!”

“I’m back,” he says. He looks over at Xion. “Roxas is sick and couldn’t come, and Lea and Isa stayed with him, so it’s only Xion.”

“Roxas is sick?” Sora, Kairi, and Naminé all ask at the same time. 

Riku grins, and Xion answers. “He had a bet with Hayner on who could eat more ice cream the fastest, and now he can’t leave the bathroom for more than fifteen minutes.”

“Gross!” Sora says. “Did he at least win?”

She shakes her head. “He beat Hayner, but then he challenged Pence, too. He still won, but...” 

Riku’s stomach does an unpleasant flip, thinking of how much ice cream that must’ve taken. Even Sora, bottomless pit that he is, looks a little green.

They recover, and regather their oars. They row in and drag their boats up the beach. When Riku brings up the cookout, both Kairi and Sora nod. “We were already invited. We hoped you’d be back in time,” says Kairi. 

He understands her meaning. He’d planned to be back today, but there are still Heartless and Nobodies out there that could delay him, or he might have found a hint worth pursuing. The disappointment that he didn’t is sour in his mouth. He can see from the careful happiness of Kairi’s manner that she knows this - he’d have said it first thing, otherwise - and she is putting her brave face on. 

If they can’t find something, then he’ll have to do what Sora did to bring back Kairi, using the power of waking to find her heart. And then they’ll still be in the same boat, but with Riku in danger of disappearing this time. This pattern could go on for their whole lives. There has to be some other way, some option that lets all of them exist safely together.

Sora looks between them. He doesn’t say anything either, but slips his hands into theirs, and leads them back to his house, chattering. 

Wakka’s parents, like a good half of the adults on the island, are fishers, so the cookout has platter after platter of seafood dishes. Sora gorges himself on scallops, abalone, mussels, crab, tuna, wrasse, snapper, lionfish, eel, and marlin. It’s not all seafood, though. Roasted pork and chicken are served piping hot from a pit oven, along with stuffed breadfruit, sweet potatoes, and bitter melon. A row of shallow iron pots produce fragrant steam from stir-fries, with arm-long bundles of noodles standing by to be quickly boiled. The tables groan under the weight of baskets of pineapples, guavas, mangos, passion fruit, dragon fruit, bananas, dates, and paopu. 

He leaves just enough room for dessert: one bowl of pumpkin poi. He goes to get shave ice, then thinks of Roxas and decides he’s eaten enough. He flops down on the cooling sand, out of the way of foot traffic. A bush of night blooming jasmine is right behind him, perfume strong enough to drown out even the smell of woodsmoke and roasting meat. He can see his parents, standing by the bonfire with glasses in their hands, talking to Riku’s folks. Yells and screams from a ways down the beach show where Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, and some other kids are having a cutthroat volleyball match. Xion is standing with Naminé, their heads bent together over the glowing screen of Xion’s phone. He can’t see where Kairi and Riku have got to.

He lays back and looks up. There are patchy clouds moving smoothly over the sky, but not enough of them to cover up the stars. A smile grows across his face. 

Kairi’s face suddenly appears over him. “What’re you smiling about?” she teases. 

He waves a hand at the sky. “Look at ‘em all, twinkling away. Every one of them’s a world. There’s so many.”

Riku’s here now, too. He kicks Sora’s shoe gently, jogging his leg. “They’re safe, too, mostly thanks to you.”

Sora sits up. His full belly protests the sudden movement. “Ooof. Loads of people fought, Riku, not just me.” He looks up again, craning his neck now from his new position. “I was just thinking, even if I live to be a hundred, I’ll never get to see all of ‘em.” They both go a little still. Sora almost bites his tongue. He hadn’t meant to upset them. 

He reaches his hands up, wraps them around their wrists, and tugs them down to sit with him. Their shoulders and thighs bump his, and he puts his arms around their shoulders. Kairi rests her head against him, and Riku slings his long arm around both of them, pulling them tight. “I just mean -” He blows out air, frowning with thought. “I know we’ll find an answer. There’s so many amazing people working on it.” 

He glances to each side. They both still look sad. He can’t help laughing. Now they both look startled. “Y’know, King Mickey said it was dangerous, but I don’t regret it! Not even a little bit!”

Riku doesn’t say anything, but Kairi hits his chest with the palm of her hand. She’s a lot stronger than she used to be, and the air _woofs_ out of him. “You could’ve waited!” she says. “My heart’s made of light, it can handle being lost a lot better than yours can!”

“But I didn’t want you to be lost,” he explains. “I don’t want you or Riku, or anybody, to be alone again.” He doesn’t know how to make them see that it’s okay if it’s him. He’s not even being all noble like they all think. It’s just an unbending, iron certainty that he can’t bear them hurting alone, that _that_ would break him way worse than vanishing himself. It’s selfish, not self-sacrificial. 

And deep down, from the bottom of his dreams, he’s sure he’ll be alright. Stained glass gleams in his mind’s eye. He’s not afraid. He hasn’t forgotten. 

He still has to open the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope your holidays were delightful, Erohani, and your next year is a wonder. 
> 
> I'm fairly pleased with this story, though it grew in the telling, and shifted from a Naminé/Xion piece to a SoRiKai one. I think you can still see its roots though - Naminé's section is the longest and (imo) best-written. 
> 
> There's a lot more content out there for Sora, Riku, and Kairi than for Naminé and Xion, so I think I'll have to try again someday.
> 
> (The names of Sora’ and Riku’s parents were taken from the fic ‘Islands Like Glass Towers’ by Lynx of Organiztion VI on fan fiction.net, which, along with it’s 2 sequels, are the best stories about those characters I’ve ever read.)


End file.
